Hi Mu,
The 'seller' it would appear does not know what they are talking about.
One could get reduced GPU performance if it is placed in a slot that does
not support PCI-E x16. Looking at the specs of the motherboard you mention
it appears to have just one PCI-E x16 slot, the rest being x8 slots which
might be what the seller is referring to. To be honest though this
motherboard and CPU spec is massive overkill if you want to build a system
for running predominantly GPU calculations. You could build your own
system (with multiple GPUs) for substantially less money. The following
page provides an example hardware setup for building your own system cost
effectively:
http://ambermd.org/gpus/recommended_hardware.htm#diy
Hopefully this will help guide you, as you can see with just a single
socket you can support 2 GPUs.
In answer to your original thread though, as long as the GTX card you buy
resides in the available x16 slot on that board you should not see any
performance degradation.
All the best
Ross
On 12/29/12 5:04 AM, "Mu Xia" <muxiachuixue.163.com> wrote:
>Hi Jason,
>
>Thanks for your reply. The seller told me that the GPU could not achieve
>100% performance (maybe 50%) when the motherboard is a server model one.
>And he recommend me to change the motherboard to a workstation model one.
>
>But I think the server model motherboard ASUS Z8PE-D12X could 100%
>support GTX580/GTX680.
>
>So what do you think of that? You agree with me or the seller?
>
>Thanks.
>
>Mu Xia
>At 2012-12-29 01:03:28,"Jason Swails" <jason.swails.gmail.com> wrote:
>>On Fri, Dec 28, 2012 at 1:54 AM, Mu Xia <muxiachuixue.163.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>>
>>> I am planning to buy a GTX680/GTX580 card to accelerate the
>>>calculation of
>>> AMBER11. The following is the hardware information of my workstation.
>>>
>>>
>>> Motherboard: ASUS Z8PE-D12X
>>> CPU: 2 x Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X5690 . 3.47GHz (12 cores) (Max TDP: 130W
>>> each CPU)
>>> Slot: 1 x16 PCI-E available
>>> Memory: 24 GB
>>> Power: 1200W
>>>
>>>
>>> The seller told me that the motherboard is a server model rather than
>>> workstation and thus does not support GTX580/GTX680 well and the
>>> performance of the GPU could only be achieved 50% maybe. I have gone
>>>to the
>>> official websites of ASUS and I am wondering what the seller said.
>>>
>>
>>I don't think this is accurate. The major differences between the HPC
>>cards (e.g., the M2070, etc.) and the standard gaming cards (e.g., the
>>GTX580) is more rigorous quality control and buffered memory. In terms
>>of
>>processor architecture, I think both families of cards are the same.
>>Were
>>you given a reason why they expected 50% performance?
>>
>> Here are two questions:
>>> 1. Could my workstation 100% support GTX580/GTX680 ?
>>> 2. As I am using AMBER11, which card is better for AMBER11 on
>>> acceleration? GTX680 or GTX580? Maybe you can recommend me another
>>>card.
>>>
>>
>>Amber11 does not support the Kepler hardware (and never will).
>>Therefore,
>>only Amber 12 can actually use the GTX 680. I would suggest upgrading to
>>Amber 12. Amber 12 with a GTX 680 will almost certainly outperform Amber
>>11 on 2 GTX 580 cards (and Amber 12 + GTX 680 is probably about the same
>>cost as two GTX580 cards, at least in the US).
>>
>>HTH,
>>Jason
>>
>>--
>>Jason M. Swails
>>Quantum Theory Project,
>>University of Florida
>>Ph.D. Candidate
>>352-392-4032
>>_______________________________________________
>>AMBER mailing list
>>AMBER.ambermd.org
>>http://lists.ambermd.org/mailman/listinfo/amber
>
>
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Received on Sat Dec 29 2012 - 12:00:03 PST
